School system determines impact of budget cuts

Published: Monday, August 12, 2013 at 10:49 PM.

With time to look at the state budget, Alamance-Burlington School System can now say what it will lose.

The system expects to cut spending by $4.9 million leaving it with a nearly $180 million budget. That will mean cutting more than 60 jobs and increasing class sizes by one student.

The Alamance-Burlington Board of Education got a first look at the school district’s revised budget for 2013-14 at its August work session Monday. The board will vote on the budget at its regular meeting on Aug. 26.

The cuts will mean eliminating 17 teaching positions, 35 teacher assistants, two assistant principals, three directors and four student-support psychologists. The teachers all retired or resigned.

Of the teacher assistants, 16 were hired back by the school system to fill vacant positions, for which there was still funding. The cut of teaching positions reduces the system’s budget by $935,000.

The teacher assistants are temporary workers hired for just one year. Those teacher assistants were simply not hired for the 2013-14 school year. Their loss should save the district more than $1 million. The other closed positions should save about $716,000. There will also be more than $1.6 million in cuts for class room supplies, technology and staff and teacher training.

Tony Rose, chairman of the board of education, said there is a public misunderstanding of how significant these cuts are. Lillie Cox, district superintendent, wrote a conservative budget, Rose said, knowing there would be less money, so there are few employees being laid off now.

With time to look at the state budget, Alamance-Burlington School System can now say what it will lose.

The system expects to cut spending by $4.9 million leaving it with a nearly $180 million budget. That will mean cutting more than 60 jobs and increasing class sizes by one student.

The Alamance-Burlington Board of Education got a first look at the school district’s revised budget for 2013-14 at its August work session Monday. The board will vote on the budget at its regular meeting on Aug. 26.

The cuts will mean eliminating 17 teaching positions, 35 teacher assistants, two assistant principals, three directors and four student-support psychologists. The teachers all retired or resigned.

Of the teacher assistants, 16 were hired back by the school system to fill vacant positions, for which there was still funding.
The cut of teaching positions reduces the system’s budget by $935,000.

The teacher assistants are temporary workers hired for just one year. Those teacher assistants were simply not hired for the 2013-14 school year. Their loss should save the district more than $1 million. The other closed positions should save about $716,000. There will also be more than $1.6 million in cuts for class room supplies, technology and staff and teacher training.

Tony Rose, chairman of the board of education, said there is a public misunderstanding of how significant these cuts are. Lillie Cox, district superintendent, wrote a conservative budget, Rose said, knowing there would be less money, so there are few employees being laid off now.

Rose said these cuts will matter. “There are less adults working with our young people,” Rose said.

According to the presentation from Julie Masten, executive director of the district’s finance department, the district is looking at $3.6 million less in state and federal funds for the 2013-14 school year.

The good news is a $1.25 million increase in funding from county government. That increase includes close to $400,000 in additional local supplemental teacher pay the Alamance County Board of Commissioners included in the county budget. The commissioners intended it to raise the local teacher supplement from 8 percent to 8.5 percent. The board of education has not made a decision about that money.

The school system also had to cut the amount it takes from its savings, or fund balance. After years of tight budgets, the system’s fund balance could dip below $3 million.